2025: Two Truths at War
We must reckon with the worst crisis of our age before we are ready for the world crisis of our day – AI, climate collapse, geopolitics – before we can tackle the issue of America's greatest divide, that of truth itself. Half of the nation takes one side of the truth, and the other half sticks to the other. Not just conflicts: these are battleground worldviews. And we can't fix anything else until we fix this split.
Two Americas, Two Realities: Climate change is an existential crisis for one group; institutional inequality is killing democracy, and science, data, and innovation are the solution. Truth, for them, comes from evidence, from cooperation, from an ensemble duty to improve the least of these. The other thinks the nation is being stripped of its identity, that globalism is undermining sovereignty, and that truth is being snatched from the truth by elites and institutions with agendas of their own. Truth is for them the thing of tradition, self-sufficiency, and the struggle against what they regard as values threatening. The two Americas are not only at odds about something. They are at odds with facts. They read different news, believe in different leaders, and exist in other worlds. Not just political: this is a split in our common conception of the world.
The Danger of Competing Truths: All the problems can never be solved without agreement on reality. Climate change? It's science on one side and a scam on the other. AI? One is seeing possibility; the other is taking charge. Even democracy is being torn down by one side accusing elections of being rigged while the other hangs on to belief in a system many feel is already rigged. The truth? This division is unsustainable. No country will withstand half its citizens thinking the other half are enemies. We are becoming two peoples, each believing it is righteous and refusing to get between.
How Did We Get Here? This truth war didn't break out overnight. It was created — by media conglomerates that profit from dissonance, by algorithms telling us what we want to hear, and by dictators with a scapegoat-making talent. But the greatest source is fear. FEAR OF THE CHANGING WORLD, LOSING MIGHT OR BEING USED, FEAR OF LEAVING. The opposing party is under attack, and when they feel threatened, people tend to hang on to their version of the truth, however tepid it is.
The Reality: We Must Find a Middle Way. We Are Not Different. We Both Are Equal. We Do Not Like One Another. And here's the truth, which we can't escape: we will fail if we stay in two Americas. The weather isn't going to let us make it so. AI won't stop growing up as we get railed. World emergencies are not going to stand still for our culture war. We will have to be able to talk to one another if we're going to make it through 2025 and beyond. Not in tweets, not with experts, but personally – face to face. We need to confront them: What is it that we're dreading to lose? And what is the future that we want? And do we even know what is most important? We don't need to be on the same page. But we have to get along. If there is no collective foundation, the house will go down.
The Urge: Chopping Through the Iron Mask. Not only is 2025 the year of climate change, AI, and instability. This is the year we choose if we're still a nation. This is bigger than policy or politics – whether we can keep seeing each other as human, even when we don't. It begins with humility: by not knowing all the solutions. It takes bravery to listen to someone we don't agree with. And it asks for work: collaboration, even when it hurts. The reality is not either/or. We are better together and will break if we don't start being that way. And the time to decide is here.
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3dTruth is some would rather believe a lie or liar than accept the truth even at the cost of our democracy and demise. As you can see with the last election. A man that is the least qualified of anyone who has ever ran for office elected again. No moral compass fiber or even a desire for truth. He would lie in our face just to project his own agenda and image. The sad part is the people that did not reject our condemn such a person. We have lost our way.